Happening now: Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on #SolarWinds hack
"Preliminary indications suggest that the scope & scale of this incident are beyond any that we’ve confronted as a nation, & its implications are significant" warns committee chairman @MarkWarner
"The reality is the hackers responsible have gained access to thousands of companies, and the ability to carry out far more destructive operation if they wanted to" per @MarkWarner
"While many aspects of this compromise are unique, the #SolarWinds Hack also highlights a number of lingering issues that we have ignored for too long" per @MarkWarner
"Right now we're not ale to give you certain attribution as to who was behind these attacks, what group" per @PentagonPresSec
"We have seen in these attacks, historically, by Shia-backed militias that they do use #Iran|ian rockets, Iranian weapons" adds @PentagonPresSec
"Nobody's backing away from the significant security challenges that #Iran still posses...We've not been bashful about that at all" per @PentagonPresSec "Nobody also is in a rush to judgment here on these particular attacks"
NEW: @StateDept's top counterterrorism official says the Jan 6 siege of the #USCapitol "wasn't just an assault on the Capitol. It was an assault on democracy, w/a violent mob trying to interfere with the results of the election"
"Nothing is more sacred to our constitutional democracy than the peaceful transfer of power" per Amb. Nathan Sales speaking to @AEI
Adds that those who rioted "desecrated the Capitol & the principals for which its stands"
"There's no room for complacency" @StateDept's Sales warns on the fight vs terrorism, repeating warnings that there needs to be a focus on #ISIS, #alQaida in #Africa #StateCTatAEI
NEW: @SecPompeo says there's an "#Iran-#alQaida axis" w/Iran serving as AQ core's new "home base"
But former US Special Envoy to the Coalition to Defeat #ISIS, Amb James Jeffrey tells @TheWilsonCenter the relationship is "transactional...not a joint campaign"
NEW: US slapping #Iran, foundations controlled by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei w/new sanctions
Sanctions target Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order (EIKO, Astan Quds Razavi (AQR) which allow regime "to exploit a system of ownership over a wide range of sectors of Iran’s economy"
"While purportedly charitable organizations (bonyads), EIKO and AQR control large swaths of the #Iran|ian economy, including assets expropriated from political dissidents & religious minorities" per @USTreasury